''Eucalyptus cosmophylla'', commonly known as cup gum, bog gum or scrub gum, is a species of small tree or mallee that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It usually has smooth bark and lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds arranged in groups of three, white flowers and cup-shaped, cylindrical or hemispherical fruit.

Description

''Eucalyptus cosmophylla'' is generally a multi-stemmed mallee growing to a height of , but sometimes a single-stemmed to with smooth, pale grey bark with white/pink areas and is sheds in plates. Young plants and

coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeate ...

regrowth have stems that are more or less square in cross-section and juvenile leaves that have a petiole. They are elliptic at first, later egg-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are thick, the same dull grey-green on both sides, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of three on an unbranched peduncle long, the individual buds

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

or on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

up to long. Mature buds are oval to pear-shaped, long and wide. They are green to yellow with a rounded or conical to beaked operculum usually shorter than the

hypanthium In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...

. Flowering occurs between July and November and the flowers are white to cream-coloured with all anthers being fertile. The fruit is a woody, cup-shaped, cylindrical or hemispherical capsule, long and wide. The fruit generally has two ribs, a thick rim and broad valves with the tips usually just below the rim. The brown seeds are polyhedral and have narrow wings along the main edges.

Taxonomy and naming

''Eucalyptus cosmophylla'' was first formally described in 1855 by Ferdinand von Mueller from specimens collected "on stony places in the Lofty and Bugle Ranges" and the description was published in ''Transactions and Proceedings of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science''. The specific epithet (''cosmophylla'') is derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

words ''kosmos'' meaning "ornament", "decoration" or "dress" and ''phyllon'' meaning "leaf".

Distribution and habitat

Cup gum grows near the sea in open shrubland, open forest and heath, usually in soils of low fertility. It is found in the southern Lofty Ranges,

Fleurieu Peninsula The Fleurieu Peninsula () is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide. History Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western side of the peninsula was occupied by the ...

and on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15397856 Trees of Australia cosmophylla Myrtales of Australia Flora of South Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1855

Description

Taxonomy and naming

Distribution and habitat

See also

References

Further reading

External links